Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Bring me a pup! I jokingly said to my brother when arranging to meet for lunch…

My journey home from New Mexico had me routed through Phoenix, AZ. A little manipulation of the connecting flight and I found myself with a couple hours on the ground; my brother, sister-in-law and adorable nephew picked me up and we headed off to lunch. I’d asked for a pup as a bit of a joke and only because he always seems to have a few lying around, ones he’s dug from around a mama plant and didn’t have the heart to just toss. I had no idea I’d be getting this…

Little agave baby bulbils! Not just one but at least 13…

He’s not big on tracking plant names, so he couldn’t tell me exactly which agave they came from.

San Marcos Growers says: “A medium sized Agave to 4 feet tall by 4 feet wide with a dense rosette, rounded in outline, atop a short trunk 1 to 2 feet tall that is usually hidden until plants get some age. The 2 foot long leaves are fairly stiff, narrow (2-4 inches) and concave towards the middle with a broad central band colored pale green and strong creamy white margins that often have a flush of pink. When in flower, which does not occur until this plant is at least 10 years old and often much later, it sends up an 8 to 10 foot spike with a well-branched panicle bearing greenish-white flowers. Though mostly solitary in youth, after flowering this plant often suckers and small colonies can form. Bulbils also form in the inflorescence to help perpetuate this plant. Plant in full sun to light shade and irrigate occasionally to very little. Hardy to around 20°F. This species is one of the most wide ranging of the agave with a natural distribution from Costa Rica in the south to Tamaulipas in the Mexican state of Sonora in the north and it occurs in tropical savannah, thorn forest and drought deciduous tropical forests from sea level to about 5,000 feet in elevation.”

If you look closely you can see a tiny “fresh” flower as well as a faded one.

So…I need some advice! What’s the best way for me to root these little guys? I’ve put the two stems in water for now, wondering if maybe they were a little young to be cut away from the umbilical stalk. Will they form air roots? Should I just break off a small bit of stem under each bulbil base and plant that? Those with experience please advise…

I forget, are Agaves in the Lily family? If so, and since you have so many, I'd try a few things. Leave some attached to the stem in water, pot up a few and put the rest in a bag of damp sand (works for Lily bulbils)...I'd wager at least one of those ways will work...probably ;-)

Take the stem OUT of the water! Separate the bulbils from the stem, let them heal for a couple days and then just set them upright and mostly on top (the swollen base should be buried just a tad) of some very pumice-laden soil, or whatever you currently use for your potted succulents. Keep them warm and out of direct sun (I put mine on a lower bench in the greenhouse this time of year). It's a slow process better done in summer, but if anything they'll just hang out until they feel like rooting. Tug on them once a month and when you feel some resistance, they're rooted and can be transplanted!

Anonymous is right in my opinion - I would treat them like any cactus cutting. Cut them off of the stem, let the cut end heal a few days (to prevent rot) and then place on top of good draining cactus soil. Water sparingly. They will send out roots eventually. In the wild, when the old flower spike falls over, they would root where they land.

I love telling people that story about the whole purpose of the stalk falling over and the babies taking root where they land, such a cool mental picture! I guess my concern came from the fact the process was interrupted before nature could take its course.

I was trying to dislodge an agave pup earlier this summer by just yanking on it (stupid, I know) and the thing snapped cleanly off at the base, leaving me with no roots. I decided to tuck it in amongst the gravel and now it is firmly rooted in place. I think yours will be fine too.

Cool gift, not just one but thirteen! Gerhards given great advice already but when I was given clumps of bulbils before I just snapped them off the stems and pushed them into gritty compost and they rooted away fine.

Take them out of the water or they will die! Just put the bulbils in some nice succulent soil and water a bit from time to time. Only put them in a sunny place when they start rooting (sorry, is that a word?Brazilian commenter here!). Don't cut the steems, try to detach the bulbils without cuting, just pull near teh steams. That's all. Good luck!

Wow wow!! Those are too cool. Is this what we get to look forward to one day when our agaves bloom?! I would not know what to do either. But agave seem to root pretty easy, so I doubt you'll have trouble.

I use the same technique as anonymous. Set them out in a dry place to callous over for a few days then stick them in a porous mix and walk away. In your climate I don't think you even need to water them.

You can break them from the stalk, let them rest a few days, and then just stick them in soil. You can put a bunch of them in the same pot, when they get big they come apart very easily. Water very sparingly (I just past the hose over the nursery pot as I go by)

[You don't have anything for scale in your pic, I'm assuming these are about 3.5 inches or so?]